Colors Of Fall Craft

Happy Fall! Yesterday was the first official day of autumn which makes this the first full day of the 2015 fall season. The air is crisp and clear and puts me in the mood for adding cozy touches to our home in anticipation of cooler weather and nights spent in front of a crackling fire. I am sprinkling some nature inspired items around the house and wanted to share another fall craft with you today. The trees in our area have not really begun to change color just yet, so for this project I pulled out some artificial fall leaves from my stash of craft supplies. They may not be the real thing, but they worked beautifully and incorporated the seasonal colors I was looking for. For this project you will need the following supplies:

          ~artificial fall leaves

                                                        ~Mod Podge                                                       

      ~sponge brush   

~glass bowl

 ~plastic wrap

Wrap the plastic wrap around the glass bowl to completely cover it. To keep the area clean, I chose to work over a piece of parchment paper. Invert the bowl onto your work surface, and begin brushing a generous amount of Mod Podge onto the artificial leaves. Place the leaves onto the plastic covered bowl one at a time, overlapping the edges. As you work, apply another coat of Mod Podge on top of the layer of leaves,

Once the Mod Podge dries clear, apply another coat of the craft medium and then allow your bowl to dry completely. Once dry, remove your leaf bowl from the glass base, and then carefully pull the plastic wrap away from the inner surface of your leaves. What you are left with is a colorful decorative dish that can be used in your seasonal decor.

I chose to fill the bowl with some of the acorns that I had dried and preserved  the other day.

 

I had just the place that I wanted to display my new project. I recently used an idea that I found on the fantastic blog On Sutton Place. Ann is a very creative blogger and I used her idea for making a rustic frame that incorporated natural elements like acorns, twigs and pine cones. I also used one of the free fall printables that she offered on her site. If you haven't seen Ann's blog, you should really take a moment to check it out. She has some great ideas and there are several printables that you can download to use in your own crafts. I used an inexpensive wood frame that I found at Wal-Mart and I found the peel and stick sheet moss at Michaels. I had never heard of the peel and stick sheet moss before reading about it on Ann's blog, and I have to say it will definitely be something I use with some future craft projects. To complete the frame I used hot glue to apply sticks, acorns and a pine cone that I gathered from my yard.  I plan on keeping the September quote in the frame until the end of the month and then will change it for another fall printable. I will keep this frame on display until I bring out our Christmas decorations.

 

I just love how these two easy projects incorporate natural elements and autumnal colors  into our home. I've been busy with some other projects and will be sharing more fall crafts with you soon. How are you bringing the colors of the season into your home?

Nature Inspired Fall Crafts

According to the calendar it is still technically summer...until Wednesday that is, but the weather around here has started to change ever so slightly to offer the hint of fall in the air. With less weeding and garden chores that need to be done, I've had more time to work on some craft and DIY projects. Although the leaves have not really begun to change color yet, the trees are sporting some fall gems, and the approach of autumn has prompted me to incorporate natural elements into the things I have been working on.

The oak trees in our yard are dropping acorns, and since I was lucky enough to be able to gather some before the squirrels and chipmunks grabbed them all, I wanted to utilize them in some of my projects and in some seasonal decorating around the house as well. In previous years I learned the hard way, that you can't just sprinkle acorns around your home or crafts without running the risk of having some little "critters" emerge from the nuts, or even having the acorns grow some mold on the shells. I did a little research this year and learned that you can safely preserve acorns by drying them in the oven. Some sites also mentioned that freezing them would kill any worms or bugs inside the shells too, but since there were mixed reviews on the effectiveness of that method, I decided to opt for the drying technique.

Today I will share the way I preserved the acorns I am gathering daily and then one of the crafts I used them in. In some upcoming posts, I'll share some additional ways I've added them to projects and decorating.

If you are lucky enough to have some oak trees near where you live, gather your acorns and inspiration for some seasonal crafting. It is best to choose acorns that don't have any cracks or holes in them as this helps to assure that there are no insects inside. Wash the nuts with tap water to remove any dirt or debris and dry them with paper towels. Set your oven to 225 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Spread your gathered nuts on the tray and place them in the oven for at least 2 hours. Several of the methods I researched also suggested leaving the oven door open to allow moisture to escape, so I did this as well. Some of the sites I read indicated that there would be a somewhat foul smell as your acorns dried, but I have done several batches so far, and haven't noticed any odor coming from the oven.

The drying process can cause some of the acorn tops to separate from the base, but they can easily be reattached with a drop of hot glue. The acorns will change color slightly from the heat, and most of the green shells that I found turned brown during the process.

Now onto one of the crafts that I utilized my newly preserved natural elements in. I love candles, and the cooler fall weather makes me want to burn them even more to add an ambiance of warmth and coziness to our home. I enjoy many of the seasonal scents that Yankee Candle offers, but I must admit, I have never been a fan of the labels that are on their jar candles. I always felt they detracted somewhat from the decorative accent. In the past, I have tried removing the labels, but found it difficult, if not impossible to get them completely off, and there always seemed to be a residue that remained.

 Therefore, this year I decided to try covering them. Burlap has become a favorite medium of mine to use for sewing and crafting. It has a natural and rustic element that just seems to be perfect for this time of year, so I decided to incorporate it into this simple craft project. I took some burlap ribbon that I had purchased and wrapped it around the candle jar, securing it with some dabs of hot glue. I then took some rope that I had in my stash of craft supplies and wrapped it around the top and bottom of the jar, again securing with a dab of hot glue.

I liked the look, but my steadily growing stash of dried acorns was calling out to me, so I decided to make another candle where I incorporated the acorns as well as some fake fall leaves that were in my craft supplies as well.

Both candles have a more rustic look than the commercialized label don't you think? The burlap ribbon has a loose weave, so the glow from the burning candle is still able to add a warm ambiance to the room as well. To be extra cautious and safe, it is best to add these decorations to candles that have been burned down a little already, so that the flame remains safely inside the glass jar and away from the burlap and rope.

I also have several battery operated candles throughout our home, and decided that these could use a little seasonal decor as well. On these, I just folded the burlap ribbon in half and wrapped it around the body of the candle, securing the two ends to each other with hot glue. I did not glue the burlap to the candle itself, so it is not permanently attached and the ribbon can be easily slipped off so that the decorations can be changed for each season. I then tied some jute string around the burlap and glued on a few acorns.

My husband grew the little orange gourds from seed in our garden, and they now add a bright little bit of fall color to our seasonal decorating.

What are your favorite natural elements to incorporate into your fall decor? 

I'll be back later this week with some other craft projects I have been working on. I hope you are enjoying the change of seasons and all the natural elements that are unique to this time of year.

Roasted Garlic and Rosemary Chicken

Although the calendar may read September, many of the herbs in our garden are still flourishing, even better than they did at the height of the summer growing season. I am always searching for ways to use my fragrant gatherings, and when I was given this recipe that was created by Rachael Ray, I knew I had to give it a try. The beauty of this recipe is that it is fairly quick and easy to prepare, which is necessary for many families now that the school year and activities are getting back into full swing. An added bonus is that it will make your kitchen smell divine as it cooks. One of the beauties of fall is having your home feel warm, cozy and inviting as everyone returns from a long day at work or school. This dinner does just that, as it delights the senses and graces your table with a delicious meal for the family to share as they chat about the day's events.  My family gave it rave reviews when I served it last evening, but when I woke up this morning and the kitchen still smelled amazing, I knew I wanted to share it. The original recipe calls for 2 1/2 pounds of chicken, but I was preparing more than that. To be honest, I didn't do exact calculated increases in the seasonings and other ingredients to account for the extra meat. I just added a little extra of everything, didn't do any precise measuring and it turned out just fine and tasted delicious.

Ingredients


-2 1/2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into large pieces
-6 cloves of garlic, crushed with the back of a spoon
-3 tablespoons of fresh rosemary leaves stripped from the stems
-3 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil
-1 tablespoon of Montreal Chicken Grill Mates Seasoning (I was lucky enough to have this in my spice cabinet but you can substitute coarse salt, black pepper, and some onion powder)
-1/2 cup dry white wine or chicken broth

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Place the chicken in a 9 by 13 inch baking dish. Add the garlic, rosemary, olive oil, lemon zest and seasoning. Toss to coat the chicken pieces with all of the ingredients.

Place in the oven and roast for 20 minutes.

Add the white wine or chicken broth and the lemon juice to the pan, combining with the pan juices, and return the baking dish to the hot oven. Turn the oven off at this point, but leave the pan in to roast for another 5 minutes before removing from the oven.

Spoon the juices over the chicken pieces when serving.

Having a loaf of  warm crisp bread to serve with this meal is a nice addition, as the remaining juices are wonderful to dip the bread in.

Enjoy

Wishing you and your family a cozy start to the new fall season!

Linking with:
A Delightsome Life
Lehman Lane 

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce Using Garden Fresh Tomatoes

I know fall is just around the corner, but our garden is pushing forth with some plentiful end of the season harvests. Do you remember earlier in the season when I told you that we had more tomato plants than we could fit in our garden? Well, Dave had planted the extras in whatever containers and buckets he could find and kept them on our deck. Guess what? They did amazingly well and have produced tomatoes all season, but when we returned from vacation they were literally overflowing with ripe fruit! My daughter and I tried to photograph the plants from several angles, but we couldn't get a picture that would adequately capture just how many ripe tomatoes these plants produced with this last yield, so here is a close up of what just one of the plants produced...

Crazy right? The tomatoes were small in size but luscious tasting. Here is what I picked from just the plants on the deck yesterday (and there are still some on the plants that aren't quite ripe yet)...

 

The plants in the garden also produced some of these smaller sized tomatoes, but the brandywine plants graced us with some large ones that filled the palm of your hand..

We've shared our bounty with neighbors, family and friends, but we still have a tremendous amount of tomatoes sitting in baskets on our counter and more that are ripening in the garden. Oh, and did I mention that our herb garden was overflowing as well, especially the basil? This photo was snapped several weeks ago, and the plants are even taller now, almost reaching my daughter's shoulders.

We made tons of garden salads, caprese salads, tomato sandwiches and BLT's, yet still piles of tomatoes and herbs remained. So, we decided to search for a sauce recipe to make. Most of the recipes we found on line however, used canned tomatoes and dried spices, and we wanted to use the plethora of fresh produce and herbs we had on hand before they rotted. We ultimately chose to modify the recipe we found HERE.  They had  a green pepper listed as an optional ingredient, but since we had some of those ripe in our garden as well, we decided to add one to our sauce, and it enhanced the flavor nicely. We also tossed in some fresh oregano, as we had an abundance of that too. We were so pleased with the end result, that I am making another batch today, and I thought I'd share our version of the recipe with you.

Garden Fresh Spaghetti Sauce

Ingredients:
-Approximately 15 fresh tomatoes, peeled chopped and blended in a food processor
-6 cloves of minced garlic
-10 Tbsp of chopped fresh basil
-2 Tbsp of cholpped fresh oregano
-2 tsp black pepper
-1 Tbsp sugar
-2 Tbsp olive oil
-1/3 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
 -1 green pepper finely chopped 

Instructions:
-Heat the oil in a  large pot over medium heat and add the minced garlic.
-Brown the garlic slightly, being careful not to burn it.
-Add the tomatoes, basil, oregano, black pepper, sugar and chopped green pepper, and bring to a boil, stiffing frequently.
-Reduce heat to low and simmer uncovered for 1 hour, stirring often.
-Cover the pot and continue to simmer for another 2 hours, stirring often.
-Add the grated cheese and simmer for another 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

Linking with:
Best DIY Projects and Recipe Party
 Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop
The Inspiration Gallery
Saturday Sparks
Treasure Hunt Thursday
Sunady Features 

Preserving Summer Memories

Signs of fall, the upcoming change in seasons, and the start of the new school year are everywhere. Halloween decorations and costumes are on display in some stores and I've already read in several articles about how many days are left until Christmas. While autumn is one of my favorite times of year, and I adore the holiday season and all it has to offer, I am not quite ready to relinquish the last few weeks of summer just yet. While some plants in our vegetable garden are starting to wilt and dry up a little, overall it is still producing a large bounty for us several times a week. While acorns and even a few leaves have started to fall from some trees in our yard, the blooms on most of the other plants still look great, and butterflies, dragonflies, hummingbirds and lightning bugs are still frequent visitors to our backyard oasis. I am determined to enjoy these lasting signs of summer and relish these small blessings.

 

 

 

 

Since we just returned from a week long vacation at the beach in south Florida, I wanted to share something we created as a way hold on to these seasonal family memories. From the time my kids were young, they enjoyed collecting shells and searching the shoreline for other treasures. Even though they are young adults now, there is still something about the search for the perfect item and the competition of seeing who can find the best token that entices them. We were lucky enough to find a nice collection of sea glass, shells, and even shark teeth while snorkeling or while just walking on the beach this year, and my daughter decided that she wanted to make a bracelet as a souvenir of  one of our favorite family vacation spots. My son had created some beautiful jewelry out of sea glass for his girlfriend in the past, so Pam enlisted the help of her artistic older brother to help with this project.

  

 In addition to the found sea glass, they used wire and some charms that they obtained from A C Moore to create the bracelet.

 

 My daughter began by selecting the piece of sea glass that she wanted to use, as my son began fashioning the bangle style bracelet out of the wire. They used needle nose pliers to wrap some of the wire around the chosen piece of sea glass so that it could be attached to the bangle.

  

 Next the charms were added to the bangle...

 

Once the competition of finding the perfect beach treasure was over, I think their combined creative efforts resulted in a beautiful souvenir bracelet that will bring back memories of many great family vacations for years to come. Their finished project was actually as nice or even nicer than much of the jewelry we saw for sale in shops near the resort or at a local craft fair. The fact that they crafted it together and that it contained sea glass that they found themselves makes it even more special than a store bought souvenir,

 How are you enjoying the final days of summer, and what are your favorite ways to capture and hold onto memories of special times?

Linking with:
Hope in Every Season

Best DIY Projects And Recipe Party
Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop
The Creative Exchange Link Party
The Inspiration Gallery
The Creative Collection Link Party
Saturday Sparks
Share Your Cup Thursday
Treasure Hunt Thursday
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Balance

I know it's been a while since I posted a new entry. Actually, my family and I were in Florida last week, and I had planned to get up early each day on vacation to create some posts and share some photos while everyone else was still asleep. However, there were some technical issues and I wasn't able to get that done. I woke up this morning with a very long "to do" list whirling around in my mind. There were many things that needed to get accomplished today, now that we are home and back into our normal hectic lifestyle. One of the things on my "to do list" was to write today's post as well as some future ones, in an effort to get into a more scheduled, predictable and professional blogging routine.
My husband is a baker for a retail food chain, and needs to be at work by 4:00 am on weekdays and 3:00 am on weekends, so our alarm goes off at a very early (almost obscene) hour. As I was pouring our coffee this morning, and trying to get back into the swing of being up so early, I clicked on my email and decided to glance at a few blogs as I packed Dave's lunch. I justified taking a few minutes to check in with my favorite bloggers by saying they would inspire me to get back into the routine of writing my own posts as soon as Dave left for work, and then I could attack the multitude of other things that needed to get accomplished today.  However, the newest post that Marian, aka Miss Mustard Seed, wrote stopped me in my tracks.  Her post was about finding balance, and it struck a chord with me. Dave and I are notorious for having crazy schedules and often taking on more than we should. I also see our oldest child getting into the same routine as he is a full time college student, works, and is starting his own business as well. Marian's words about balance, and making "priority lists" and not "to-do" lists hit home and reminded me of a book I read and this post that I wrote last year.
It's very easy to get caught up in a hectic lifestyle and not feeling like you are being productive unless you are doing more, accomplishing more, and accumulating more. There are so many blessings in life that we can miss if we don't take the time to slow down and appreciate them. Our health can suffer and we can pay a big price for committing to too much or for trying to be a perfectionist. So, before you begin your day, and your week, I encourage you to read today's post on the Miss Mustard Seed blog and consider the great advice Marian offers about setting limits, taking care of yourself, and prioritizing.  As you search for the ever elusive balance in life, I also want to again quote a passage from the book I mentioned in the post I wrote last year. I quoted this passage before, but Marian's post brought it to mind today, so I think it is worth repeating. It was written by James Patterson in the book Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas.... "Imagine life is a game in which you are juggling five balls. The balls are called work, family, health, friends and integrity. And you're keeping all of them in the air. But one day you finally come to understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other four balls -family, health, friends, integrity- are made of glass. If you drop one of these it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered. And once you truly understand the lesson of the five balls, you will have the beginnings of balance in your life." I'll leave you with that thought and the photo below from our vacation for now. I'll back later this week with some photos, some recipes and maybe even some projects as we get ready to move from one season into the next. Although this isn't the post I had planned to write today, after reading Marian's thoughts on balance, it seemed like a fitting way to ease out of vacation mode and back into reality. As you go about your day trying to juggle all of the balls in your life, please remember to take care of yourself and notice the beauty and blessings that surround you.

Zucchini Bread

The summer sunshine and warm weather bring a bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables this time of year.  When I was growing up, my mother would make several batches of zucchini bread each summer, utilizing the vegetables from my grandmother's garden. When I got married I continued the tradition of making this sweet summer treat for my own family. There are a lot of versions of zucchini bread  around, but this recipe that was given to us by a family friend, is the one that my husband and kids seem to like the best.  It freezes well, so you can make it often while zucchini is plentiful and have it available throughout the year. This may not be the healthiest way to eat your veggies, but it is certainly delicious... whether served with a warm cup of tea for breakfast or with a tall glass of milk for dessert!

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder                                                              
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
4 eggs
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup of oil 
2 tsp vanilla
1  4 oz can crushed pineapple, well drained
2 cups of shredded zucchini

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350° 
Grease and flour 2 loaf pans OR 1 bundt pan
Thoroughly squeeze and drain shredded zucchini, and then dry with paper towels
Shift the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and baking soda together into a large bowl
In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, sugars, vanilla and oil together, then combine with the dry ingredients, blending well.
Add in the pineapple and zucchini till well blended
Pour into prepared pans and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Enjoy 

Linking with:
Hope in Every Season
Best DIY Projects and Recipe Party
Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop
Tabler Party Of Two